


Not Just Another Trick

by Northern_Lady



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Captain America (Movies), Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Longing, One Shot, Romance, all for love - Freeform, loki isn't evil just tricky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-28 11:27:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13270482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Northern_Lady/pseuds/Northern_Lady
Summary: A one shot Loki and Nebula story (with similarities to my multi-chapter fic still in progress) because I really wanted to see something a little more fluffy and a little less lengthy. This is the story of how it could be for them in the MCU.





	Not Just Another Trick

Tony Stark and several of the Avengers had gathered at one of the SHIELD facilities to see something that Phil Coulson had told them was very important. They were ushered into a room full of medical equipment where a young alien woman lay unconscious in a bed. She had blue skin, no hair, and various visible cybernetic parts. 

“This is Nebula,” Phil began. “She’s the reason I invited you here. Her ship crashed on earth two days ago. Our people got her out and have been doing our best to tend her injuries. In the meantime, we discovered that her cybernetic eye has video footage of all her memories. Those memories contain elements that are important to the security of earth.” 

“How so?” Steve Rogers asked, his arms crossed. 

“I have multiple agents going through the footage. From what we have been able to gather, Nebula was adopted by a warlord called Thanos after he destroyed her planet and killed her parents. Thanos forced her into a training program to become an assassin. Much of her training consisted of combat with her adopted sister. Every time Nebula lost a fight, Thanos would tear away part of her body and replace it with cybernetic parts.” Phil explained. “I can tell you, the footage of what he did to her is not easy to watch.” 

“I wouldn’t think so,” Nat agreed. 

“This is where it gets interesting. Some years ago Nebula had been sent on a mission by her father and she picked up a man who was lost in space, a certain Asgardian who had just fallen from the bifrost.” Phil told them. 

“Loki?” Tony asked. 

Phil nodded. “Yeah. Loki stayed on her ship for nearly two months while she travelled to the planet where her father had sent her to kill a target. Based on her memories, Nebula is a very serious warrior type, passionate, impulsive, driven, she wasn’t one for jokes or laughter. After two days on board the ship, Loki said something that made her laugh. Soon after, the two of them became lovers. They had a shared history of being adopted and having that adoption not work out so well for them. And the fact was, Loki treated her with kindness unlike she had experienced before then, that kindness earned him her admiration, which was exactly what he needed. Nebula failed to eliminate her target. She confessed to Loki that she was worried about how her father would punish her for her failure so he agreed to help her finish the job. They chased the target for several months but before they could catch him, Thanos himself finished the job. He got tired of waiting. He put a tractor beam on Nebula’s ship and forced her to return to him. I think you should see the footage of what happened when Nebula and Loki met Thanos.” 

Phil switched on a screen and they all watched the view from Nebula’s eye as she and Loki entered a dimly lit throne room. There were guards in the room and weapons case on the wall. 

“I am disappointed in you, daughter. Gamora would have done as I asked.” Thanos said, his voice deep and sad. 

“Forgive me Father. Let me try another target. I will do better next time. I promise.” Nebula said. 

“Was the failure yours, or was it his?” Thanos looked to Loki. “Who is this stranger you have brought with you?” 

“This is Loki of Asgard. And the failure was mine. He had no part in it.” 

“What can you do, Asgardian? You must have powers of your own or my daughter would not admire you as she clearly does.” Thanos asked, unhappy. 

“Only a little magic, my lord.” Loki replied, changing his form a few times as he did. 

“Interesting, perhaps I can make use of that,” Thanos said. “But first, Nebula will pay for her failures. Guards!” 

The guards came forward as Nebula took a step back and muttered, “No…” They took her arms. 

She glanced at Loki to find him looking concerned and horrified. 

“Take her lungs,” Thanos said. “With artificial lungs she can survive in water and in space. Take them.” 

Nebula was screaming in rage. Five guards held her down. Loki reached for a weapon in the case on the wall. A blast of energy hit one of the guards holding Nebula. 

“Stop him!” Thanos called out. 

Guards and soldiers filled the room. Loki continued to fight them one by one. Four guards still held Nebula. One took out a knife and stabbed into her chest. Loki roared in anger. As he did, energy from the scepter in his hand blasted around him in a perfect circumference, leveling everything in the throne room in one massive burst of energy. The guards and soldiers were all dead. The furniture was destroyed, the walls were cracked, and even Thanos had been damaged by the blow. 

“You can wield the scepter?” Thanos said with amazement. 

Loki ignored him and went to Nebula, helping her to her feet. He pulled the knife from her chest and used his healing magic to close the wound. The both of them were out of breath and shaken. 

“Do not ignore me, Asgardian!” Thanos growled. 

Loki turned to Thanos to see what he wanted. 

“You are the brother of Thor, son of Odin are you not?” Thanos asked. 

“Indeed,” Loki said. 

“You have both the power and the position that I can make of use of you after all. You will go to Midgard and distract your brother from guarding that world and bring me back what is mine, an item they call the tesseract.” 

“I will not,” Loki said, as if he could hardly believe he was being told to do this. 

“You will. As long as I have this,” he held up what looked to be handheld computer console,” You will do whatever I say. With this device I can turn off my daughters neural network. I can kill her by pushing one button.” 

Loki looked torn and worried. He glanced at Nebula, clearly not knowing what to say. Then an idea seemed to come to him. “I will do it, but only if I can rule the planet when I am finished. I am a god. I was meant to rule. And as a reward for my services, you will give your daughter to me. You will write the betrothal contract today.” 

Thanos smiled, and started to laugh. “It will be done as you say, Asgardian.” 

Phil paused the video and switched the screen off. 

“That was not what I was expecting to see,” Steve said. 

“This still doesn’t justify what he did,” Tony said, “I get that he was trying to save the woman he loved, but at what cost?” 

“You know, he said something to me about that?” Nat said. “Loki said something to me about bargaining for the life of one man. I never realized he was talking about himself in an ironic sort of way.” 

“The point I was trying to make here, is based on what Loki did in that throne room, he was holding back when he invaded earth,” Phil said. “We counted, there were 112 people in that room and most of them were aliens with a physiology probably stronger than humans. If he could do that in four seconds, think of the damage he could have done on earth had he really wanted to hurt anyone?” 

“So what are you saying? When Thor’s ship gets here we should what, welcome him to earth?” Tony asked. They had been receiving messages from Thor’s ship for nearly a month. It would arrive any day now. 

“No, I don’t think the people of earth would ever go for that, no matter what his reasons were,” Phil admitted. “I think we should give him Nebula in exchange for his not setting foot on earth. She’s getting better. She’ll be awake in the next few days. If we return the woman he loves to him, he’ll be no threat to us ever again.” 

“I think you’re right,” Steve said. “Besides, we’ve got no reasons to keep her here. She hasn’t committed any crimes and I really think after this we ought to stay out of her head.” 

**********************

Some nights Loki still thought of her, of Nebula. He tried not to because he knew she was mostly likely dead by now but he couldn’t help it. He couldn’t help but remember those nights spent in her ship after she had rescued him when he fell from the bifrost. Those first days she had been so distrusting, so serious. Just because she’d kept him from dying didn’t mean she wanted any friends or wanted to hear his life’s story. He had told her his story anyway. Eventually she had told him her story too. They had a long way to fly to get back to her father’s ship. Nebula told him he shouldn’t meet her father, that it would best if anyone with any power stayed far away from her father but he hadn’t listened to her. He had been too intrigued by her to leave her just yet. Then after a few days Loki had said something witty, something that would have made an Asgardian laugh. Nebula had just stared at him as if he’d said something absurd then the smallest hint of a smile turned up the corner of her mouth. He was pretty sure she never laughed in life but for him she had smiled. That night she had told him there was no need for him to sleep on the bridge again and he had slept in her bed. 

Even now, on board the Asgardian ship, having seemingly regained the favor of his brother and his people, Loki couldn’t sleep at night for thinking about the feeling of her blue skin in his hands or her warm body in his arms. He missed her. He missed her enough that he would gladly conquer as many worlds as Thanos asked and hand over as may tesseracts as the Mad Titan asked of him if it would only save her. But it hadn’t saved her the last time. He had failed and that failure had haunted him as much as his brother’s disappointment. 

********************

Loki woke on the bridge of the ship gasping from a nightmare. He had fallen asleep at the helm, having stayed there late into the night to try and avoid going to bed. Thor was at his side watching him with concerned eyes. 

“Why are you still here?” Loki asked. 

“Why do you have nightmares?” Thor asked. “And don’t tell me this is the first. I have been watching. You never sleep and when you do, you are plagued by dreams.” 

“I can’t sleep,” Loki combed back his hair with his fingers. “Every time I try to sleep…” 

“Every time, what? What happened to you brother that haunts you so?” 

Loki sighed. “I might as well tell you and be done with it. Come?” 

Thor followed Loki back to his chambers. Loki took a box from a nearby shelf. “I have the tesseract. I took it from Asgard.” 

Thor was stunned. He took a step back. “And this is what keeps you awake at night?” 

“Hell no, what keeps me awake is the temptation to give this to Thanos if it would return her to me…” Loki swallowed. “You have to take it.” 

Thor looked confused but he took the box offered to him anyhow. “I don’t understand. Who is Thanos? And who is, she?” 

“Thanos is a powerful and evil warlord. He wants the tesseract and other infinity stones more than anything and stop at nothing to get them. She, is his daughter, Nebula. Her ship picked me up when I fell from the bifrost. When Thanos realized that I was the brother of Thor who guarded the world where the tesseract was, he thought to use me to distract you and the Avengers while the Chitari did the rest. At first, I said no, I wouldn’t do it. Then he started hurting her...and I told him I would give him what he wanted if he would give me his daughter. He agreed. It was the only way.” 

“You invaded earth for the love of a woman?” 

“No, not entirely. He was never going to end hurting her. I wanted to protect her and I could see that he was too powerful for me beat. Maybe I hoped that I truly could rule earth and somehow keep the tesseract from him. I don’t know why I did it except that I was broken and confused and I couldn’t see any other solution. That is why I’m giving you this now. Thanos will come for this and if by some miracle Nebula still lives, I will hand it to him without hesitation.”

Thor shook his head, “No, I don’t think you will. I think you will devise a clever way to keep the tesseract from Thanos and still get back the woman you love.” 

“You will help me do that?” 

“I will indeed.” 

************************

“We’ve arrived. We’re in orbit of earth,” Thor told Tony Stark on the viewscreen from the bridge of his ship. 

“Good, got any way I can bring someone up to see you?” Tony asked. “I’d just fly up myself but this person doesn’t exactly fly.” 

“I can send down a shuttle. Who will be coming to see us?” Thor asked. 

“Someone who showed up looking for Loki. I think he’s gonna want to see her.” Tony said. 

“Does she have blue skin and cybernetic implants?” Thor wanted to know. 

“She does. So he’s told you about her. Send that shuttle down and a few of us will be up to see you shortly,” Tony said. 

Thor didn’t tell Loki who Tony was bringing. They waited together in the shuttle bay. When the shuttle doors opened, Tony stepped out followed by Nat and Steve. Then a fourth person wandered out looking a little lost. 

“Nebula?” Loki choked out her name. 

“Loki!” Nebula only hesitated a moment and then she ran across the room and threw herself into Loki’s arms. 

Loki was overcome with emotion. He was hugging Nebula tightly and she seemed to be crying, though no one in the room could see her face to be sure. 

“You escaped him?” Loki finally said, pulling himself away from Nebula and taking her by the shoulders. He was looking her over as if to check and see that she was unharmed.

She nodded. “It wasn’t easy but I did.” 

“I was sure he would kill you. I was sure that when I failed, he would make good on his threats...I never thought to see you again...I thought...all of that destruction was for nothing…” 

“He was so angry when you failed, so enraged, that I was able to use those moments to remove all my trackers. Had I done it any other time, he would have noticed, he always watched me too closely. But that day… Loki, you kept your promise to me. You got me out.” 

“And now you’re here?” Loki looked around the room, suddenly worried. His gaze stopped on Tony Stark. “Why is she here? What do you want from me?” 

“Only your allegiance,” Steve said. “Though, by the looks of things, it’s her allegiance we should be concerned about, since you go where she goes.” 

“Thanos will come to this world looking for the tesseract. He thinks it is still here.” Nebula said. “When he comes I will fight alongside you. Nothing would please me more than his death.” 

“If she fights for this world then so do I,” Loki said. 

*******************

While Banner and Thor had a little reunion with the rest of the Avengers, Loki and Nebula managed to wander off for time alone. It was good to have her in his bed again. They stayed awake half the night making love and eventually when Nebula lay breathless and exhausted in his arms she broke the silence with a question. 

“Do you still have it, the tesseract?” she asked him. 

“Does Thanos still have the button that can end your life?” he replied. 

“He does, but it can not reach me until he is close by. So do you still have it?” 

“Yes, I gave Thor a fake. When the moment is right, I will distract Thanos by offering him the real tesseract, and you can kill him.” 

She snuggled a little closer to him. “You play the best tricks and that’s exactly why I love you.” 

Loki smiled. “There’s no better reason to play tricks if not for someone I love.”


End file.
